On Achievement and Self-Esteem

As parents or teachers, how can we help our children reach their full potential?

This is a question I have wrestled with for many years, both as a teacher and as a parent. In my experience, once issues such as special needs and special situations (trauma, language barriers, cultural barriers, etc.) have been ruled out or better yet, addressed, the causes of underachievement generally fall into three categories: fear of failure, fear of success and perfectionism.

Let's say a child, we'll call him Zack, is particularly adept at music. He enjoys playing music. When he has spare time, he often fills it with extra practice. Then he takes an exam and does very well. His score is admirable, and he receives a great deal of praise and positive attention for it. Then, a month or so later, you notice he no longer seeks it out. In fact, he begins to resist practicing, He loses his current workbook. When he does practice, he sticks to pieces he learned much earlier, and does not work on any new material.

What is happening here?

It could be that Zack needs a rest for a while after working hard. He could be losing interest, and it may be time to move on. Or, it could be that he is afraid of failure.  What if he is unable to continue to surpass, or even meet his own expectations or the expectations of his teacher or parents? If he doesn't put in any effort, Zack doesn't ever have to face his own limitations, whatever they may be. He gains control of the situation in the sense that if he doesn't try, he and others will have low expectations. He is in control of any feelings of disappointment from himself or others, even if it means it costs him any chances at further success.

Now let's say his 14-year old sister Zoe loves languages. Her aunt taught her some Spanish at an early age, and both French and English are spoken regularly at home. She became trilingual at an early age, and enjoys conversing in all three languages with various friends from different countries over the Internet. Her parents are proud of her linguistic abilities and offer her lessons in German, as they intend to visit there the following summer. Initially Zoe shows enthusiasm at the idea, and attends the classes, however, her teacher reports that she "zones out" and does not participate in class discussions. Zoe also fails to complete some of her exercises and hand them in. When it is time to leave home for class, Zoe makes excuses to stay home. Moreover, she stops conversing with others in Spanish and French, and when asked about these, she says she was never very good at them, and was finding it more and more difficult to understand what the others were saying.

What is happening here?

Zoe identifies herself as a gifted linguist. She may not remember learning the languages she can speak, yet she speaks them well. If she tries to learn German and fails, can she still consider herself a gifted linguist? What if she isn't really such a gifted linguist anymore, what if it was all a big mistake and she isn't any good at languages after all, what will that mean? When she starts the class, she is back at square one, having to learn a language from scratch. Although she makes some quick progress initially, she realizes that it will take a while to become as fluent as she is in her other languages. Thoughts of self-doubt begin to cloud her learning, and she reacts accordingly.  

If she can downplay her abilities in the other languages, maybe she can lower her own and other people's expectations for her acquisition of German, or any other language, in the future.

She is afraid that any successes she achieves will be used against her in order to raise future expectations, either by herself, by her parents and teachers, or other significant people in her life. She is also afraid that the way she and others view her might somehow be wrong, and that she will lose her sense of identity if she somehow fails in her efforts to learn German.

Kami has achieved high marks throughout his schooling, and is especially adept at English, which comes easily to him. When he received a "B" on a writing unit, he was devastated, and since then has worked several hours  extra each night. Despite this, his mark continued to fall. His teacher reports that he has not handed in his assignments on time, and some not at all.

Kami is worried that his work is not "good enough", so he is reluctant to complete it and hand it in. He spends a great deal of effort writing and re-writing it, but it still doesn't feel quite "good enough" to him. He worries about receiving another "B" or worse, and feels he needs to do even better that he used to do in order to make up for that mark.

That makes a lot of sense, but what can we do about it?

Some ways we can help students reduce these fears:

- avoid labels or quantifiers, such as "You're so good at math!" ""You're our star player!" etc.; use praise sparingly, relate it to the effort expended, and make it count (for an excellent article about praise see here)

- take time out with your child to evaluate together major sources of stress, and what you can do together to help reduce stress and make necessary tasks manageable--try and do this regularly and check back to see what is working and what needs to change

- let your child know how you value them beyond their accomplishments--how you admire their laughter, kindness, sense of humour, compassion, quirks, maturity, etc.

- ask you child how they feel about their work, what they've learned, whether this represents their best efforts, what they might do differently in the future, what parts they are especially proud of--let them be their own judges, and let them know you value their opinions (and be prepared to defend them against themselves when they are unduly hard on themselves too!)

- encourage honesty about failures by being open to mistakes and failing, and encourage students to learn from these experiences and continue with their efforts

- admit to your own failings, mistakes and "learning the hard way" so that students can learn by example that mistakes are a vital part of learning

- celebrate successes and failures--yes, failures--as part of life-long learning; failing at something usually means that an effort was expended that stretched the learner beyond their normal comfort level; this means that they took a risk and will learn from it, and is a cause for celebration.  Risk taking is not easy to do, particularly in our results-driven society, but is a behaviour that is most needed throughout life in order to achieve to one's greatest potential

Sir Ken Robinson says it much better than I can here.

Drops in the Bucket

So often we hear about the futility of various efforts to curtail greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. We hear how little effect changing our habits in various ways will have. We hear how solar energy isn't the answer--not enough storage capacity. Wind energy is expensive to build and maintain. Geothermal energy isn't practical everywhere. Tidal power is expensive to maintain. People won't change their habits without strong legislation. There is no political will. And so on.

We hear how little things--like conservation measure including recycling, composting, turning off lights when not in use, line-drying clothing, etc. are all futile and have such a tiny effect as to be insignificant. We hear people refer to the environment in terms that work well for an economic or business model, but have no bearing in the reality of nature.

We hear how we can't just shift gears over night (despite knowing about climate change for several decades now). We hear from people who fear the shifts that must be made, for various reasons.


We are caught in a "you go first" childhood game, except the stakes are much higher. And some countries are bravely starting, such as Scotland with new clean energy investments. Unfortunately, North American countries are much more cowardly, preferring to let others take the lead.


Yes, the world is full of cynicism, which infects all areas of society. It is so very easy to lose heart and become overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. It is certainly easier to give up than to try!

But for a moment, let's put aside all the "glaring realities" and other cynical comments and consider the more positive possibilities. What if we all worked together on this? What if, instead of pitting ideas against each other and searching for one single Holy Grail of the energy issue, we made use of what we have, with the vision of investing in further research and development as we go?

When we put together all of our current technology, we have the capacity to exceed current energy demands. If we invest in research rather than sinking our money into a losing cause (aka oilsands and further oil subsidies), we can continue to expand our options in the renewable sector. We can invest in high-speed rail and better public transit options, with the joyful side-effect of job creation. We can give tax breaks to employers who encourage telecommuting. We can pass legislation requiring better vehicle fuel efficiency. We can enforce anti-idling laws. We can reshape our international trading practices to require less movement of materials.
We can vote, or rather, those of us old enough can. We can write letters, make phone calls and send emails.

No one solution is the magic bullet, but each piece is vital. We cannot afford to shun an action, however small it may seem, because it won't do it all. It is vital to remember that there are a lot of us. Within a 100 km radius of where I live, the human population is numbered in the millions. If just in this small area each person were to reduce their energy use by even just 5%, this would have an impact. Imagine if this idea spread!

But we are conditioned to a state of learned futility, not only in terms of the environment and politics, but in virtually every aspect of society, so we shrug off these facts because we feel insignificant. Many of us don't even vote anymore because we have lost faith in the system, because we feel overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, because we feel powerless to change things.

Whether your are the "99%" or the ""1%", whether you even know which or could care less, if you do nothing and give up without trying, you become the "0%"--you have no effect at all. This is a defeatist way in which to approach life. We can do better.

And this is exactly why we need even more to keep up our own efforts. We keep hearing about the economic recession, and many are affected deeply by it. But the biggest recession we face as a society is the lack of faith in ourselves. We have to do better, and we have to do so now.

Censorship and Food

After many threats to internet freedom over the past few weeks, we are now coming up to Freedom to Read week.

Remember a few months back when "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was re-published with all of the historically accurate and appropriate uses of the word "nigger" deleted? Unfortunately, this sort of thinking is not rare. There are many people out there who are afraid of ideas that run different to or counter to their own. They would have these ideas silenced for everyone.

Like many others I know, my personal gut reaction when I hear of censorship or attempts at censorship is to automatically decry it. After all, people can choose whether to read something. What right do they have to make that decision for others? Even in school, where reading is prescribed, there is room for discussion & analysis for any novel. Seeing another point of view is an important part of education and growing up. I disagree with many aspects of the politics of Ayn Rand, but would be a fool to believe that there is no value in reading The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged.

And then...

I read about some other instances that made me start to rethink the absolute nature of my opinion.
What if there was a medical textbook or journal that had a misprint, or erroneous or outdated information? What about other material that contains inaccuracies that could lead to personal injury, hardship or even death?

What about hate literature?

Then there is another example that will always stay with me. Remember Paul Bernardo & Carla Homolka? Well, before the video tapes were released, and while the general public was led to believe that Homolka was  also a victim of sorts, a book was written on the subject. Once the tapes were released, it was revealed that she was also guilty. In the meantime, the book was released. Imagine, if you will, being a relative or friend of one of the victims, and having to walk past a bookstore every day and see this book on public display. I suspect that even the most staunchest supporter of the public's right to freedom to read would agree that moving the title out of public view in the victims' hometowns was an act of pure compassion.

So, now that I've found even this issue has some "shades of grey" (at least, it does for me), how, in fact can we support both the concept of freedom of information as well as protect the public from the extremes that could become dangerous?

What if we were to provide labeling and a recall system to publications, much as we do for movies or food? For example, a book with violent themes could have a warning label on it, similar to the movie rating systems. A book with graphic violence might be restricted, less graphic might be pg-13, etc. Personally, I would have loved to have seen a warning on Steinbeck's The Pearl. While it is a fantastic piece of literature, it was too much for me to take at the time I happened upon it (I was 13 then). With a warning, I would have saved it for a later time. Other 13 year old kids might have been ready for it; I was not. Labeling could help sensitive people make better reading decisions. This might lead to better acceptance of a wider variety of literature in general.

Errors and omissions, as well as needs for updating could be handled similarly to food recalls, except rather than withdrawing the offending piece, consider the distribution of appendices/labels/etc. that could be added to the publications as required. That way the original is kept intact, but the erroneous information is corrected. With e-readers, this task could become quite easy to manage.

There is the issue of oversight, but since there is obviously a huge population who already willingly takes on the "task" of challenging books based on politics, religion, etc., many of these areas might be covered without the need for an official system. In regards to errors, omissions, revisions and retractions, the author, publisher and peer review committees might find it beneficial to take up the cause.


More about Freedom to Read week, including lists of challenged books.

Some of my own family's favourite books.
Pen International supporting writers facing persecution for the peaceful expression of their ideas
Forest of Reading Ontario's reader's choice awards for children of all ages

Math and Art

When I used to hear the pink-tied "mathies" at the University of Waterloo speak about the "symmetry of numbers" and the "beauty of an equation" I will admit that I really thought they'd been spending too much time crunching numbers and had completely lost touch with reality. Then a friend studying math introduced me to the art of M. C. Escher, and I was (almost) convinced that there might be something to this after all. Until this point, the closest I'd ever come to connecting math and art was with an annoying grade 8 project. Perhaps you remember using string to connect nails on a board in order to turn straight lines into curves? Well, we had to provide all the materials and tools, and the kids who cheated and bought the pre-patterned and pre-nailed hobby shop kits got the highest marks. This was not a good way to make a positive math/art connection!

If you aren't familiar with the work of Escher, here is a link to the "official M. C. Escher website". Escher was famous for his impossible art--featuring stairways that changed orientation depending on your point of reference, and transformations (tessellations) in which a repeating fish pattern might gradually coalesce into a flock of birds in flight, or a group of lizards might suddenly walk off a drawing page moving from two- to three-dimensional creatures. His tessellation work ranges from the simple to the quite complex in its geometry, and the staircases, which feature impossible spaces, seem to draw from non-existent dimensions. He also used reflection tricks, though he is less famous for these.
I could not find any public domain Escher works, so you will need to visit the link above to take a peek at his work.

Mathematics is an integral part of art, whether in the case of two-dimensional art, as in drawings, sketches, paintings, etc. or three-dimensional sculpture. Artists use perspective, vanishing points, horizon, the "rule of three", the "golden proportion" and many other mathematical tools. Geometry is an integral part of form in art. Sculptors also incorporate the use of 3-dimensional space and topology in their work. Topology is the mathematical study of the properties that are preserved through deformations, twistings, and stretchings of objects (Wolfram Alpha site definition).Some examples of topology can be found here. An example of a sculpture based on the idea of a 3-dimensional spirograph can be found here.

Natural patterns, such as the patterns on cones, leaves, flower petal arrangements, formations of shells, etc. tend to follow the Fibonacci sequence. This is a sequence that starts with 0 and 1. Add those together to get the third number, which is 1. Add the last two to get the next number, which is 2. Add the last two to get 3, then 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 etc. These number can be found in many places! And their patterns make for some interesting art as well.

If you have ever heard of fractals or Mandelbrot Sets, you are familiar with Chaos theory. The book Chaos by James Gleik explains better than I can how this branch of mathematics takes seemingly random or chaotic data or systems and attempts to find the underlying pattern governing the data/system. The resulting mathematics has provided interesting equations that create beautiful patterns. Some of these can be found in nature, such as in the pattern of a shoreline, a feather or a fern leaf.
Here is an image of a Mandelbrot Set and a second image of it repeated:

Source: Wiki Commons (both images)
For more on Mandelbrot sets, see this incredible site: http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/mandelbulb.html
Here are two contrasting images of fractals:

 Source: PDphoto.org

Source: Wiki Commons

These may be mathematical constructs, but one would be mistaken not to also consider them beautiful, and in their own way, works of art.

So when you or your students get bored of ho-hum arithmetic and worksheets, have a little fun with some of these and see where they take you!

More math activities and links can be found here.

Warm-Ups

Over the holidays it is especially important to get outside and enjoy some time with nature. Spending time with nature helps us deal better with the stresses of the season, gives us a bit of a vitamin D boost, and is an enjoyable way to spend time with friends and family. If you are fortunate enough to live where the temperatures actually reach sub-zero at this time of year, you can go skating, skiing or snowshoeing. Those of us who only "might" get a white Christmas can still don rain or winter boots and hike through our local forests.

Each winter solstice, our family chooses one tree to decorate with bird seed treats. It is part of a tradition we started when the kids were toddlers, and as we visit that tree on our walks throughout the winter, the kids make note of animal tracks and what has been eaten and what has been left behind.

To warm up, try a bowl of homemade squash soup (recipe below), and/or an arctic float. Or just make some homemade hot chocolate and use a candy cane as your stir-stick for a seasonal treat.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (makes about 6 litres)

2 medium butternut squashes, cut into quarters
water
one cooking onion
2-3 tart apples (Granny Smith, Spartan or Empire work well), peeled, cored and chopped
1-2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
sunflower oil
sea salt (about 2 teaspoons)
pepper
cinnamon (about 1.5 teaspoons)
nutmeg (about 1 teaspoon)
powdered ginger (about 1/2 teaspoon)
cayenne pepper (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Add water to your baking dishes (just enough to soak the bottom of the dishes) then add your squash. You can remove the seeds before or after baking. Bake the sqaush for 40-60 minutes or until tender.

In a heavy and large soup pot, heat the oil. Fry the onion until it is clear, then add chopped carrots. Continue cooking for about 2 minutes, then add the apples and 2 cups of water (you may need more water later on). Continue cooking until the carrots and apples start to soften.

Scoop out the flesh from the squash and add it to the pot. Stir well and blend with an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender, using a large mixing bowl to hold the blended portions. Once it is all blended, return the soup to the pot.

Add the salt, pepper and spices to taste.

This freezes well too.

Enjoy!

Time-Tested Toy Favourites

My own children are growing out of the "toy store" years, but as I prepare for the holidays, I will admit to more than a little nostalgia for those days.
There are some toys, however, that even now still get pulled out regularly. Their play value has not diminished over the years, and they have stood up to time & punishment, so I thought they deserve a special mention at this time of year for all those parents who are at the beginning of their toy journey.

Note that I have not included here non-commercial toys of great value, such as appliance boxes, tree forts, sand boxes, rice tables, dress-up trunks, art supplies, etc. Non-commercial toys will be a subject for a separate post at a later time.

1. Pattern blocks. These are colourful blocks in a variety of scaled geometric shapes. They are made of a variety of materials including wood (traditional, and sturdiest), plastic, foam, and magnets. These have been used free-form in our house to build mandalas, make pictures to illustrate stories, to work out geometry problems, for stop-motion animation projects and many other purposes too.

2. Plain (dot-free) wooden coloured dominoes & accompanying gadgets (spinner, teeter-totter, bridge, steps,  bell tunnel, etc.). There have been more domino runs built in our house than I can count, and not a week has gone by over the past 7 years that they have not some out for use. They often form part of a more elaborate Rube Goldberg machine contraption. Our Melissa & Doug set was unfortunately discontinued, so we were forced to make homemade dominoes to flesh out our set and keep up with design demands. Fortunately, another manufacturer (HearthSong) now makes a similar product.

3. Crazy Forts This tinker-toy style building set is aimed for preschoolers. It allows kids to build fort-sized contraptions while still keeping the kitchen chairs available for adult use. Just add a blanket or sheet to finish off the fort. There is also a separate LED light you can pick up that fits into a connector piece so you can light up your fort. Yes, my tween & teen still get some use from these, although they only come out every few months or so now.

4. Plain wooden blocks. The more, the better. Foam also work, but aren't nearly as rugged and are tougher to keep clean. Look for smaller sizes with lots of variety in shapes (cones, arches, pyramids, cylinders, cubes, rectangular and triangular prisms, semi-spheres, etc.).

5. I hesitate to include this as it is made of plastic, but Playmobil is still going strong in our house. My youngest uses it to model historical scenes as well as scenes from favourite novels.

6. Building sets, such as Lego, K'nex, Straws & Connectors, UberStix, etc. The key here is to buy generic sets with no theme; the themed sets we have have only seen a single use (or at most, a week's worth of play) and once the novelty wore off, the generic pieces were taken for use in more creative projects while the specialized pieces sat in storage bins. The one exception to this might be Lego Mindstorms. UberStix is especially interesting as it incorporates all major building sets along with recyclables, including plastic water bottles, shower caps, drinking straws, etc.

7. Snap Circuits These sets have a guide book that takes you through ordered projects that introduce you to basic concepts in a logical way. This includes basic principals of circuitry and safety guidelines. After that is where the real fun begins.
Hint: if you cannot find a Snap Circuits piece you want, you can connect regular wires & components to the set, but be sure to follow safety rules and size your parts accordingly. Be sure your children thoroughly understand the basics before your introduce non-Snap Circuits parts.

Do you have any favourites to add?

Celebrating a STEM Holiday Season

STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, technology, engineering & mathematics.

Adding a little STEM to the holiday season is a great way to have a little geeky fun.

Math

Mobius Paper Chains:
Liven up the traditional paper chains by giving each link a twist before fastening. Try making a thicker link on its own, then cut it down the centre to see what happens. You can use a few of these for your chain as well.  Try cutting a strip 1/3 from the edge all around. What happens?

Stars & Angles:
What kind of star do you get when you join up all the corners of a square? Pentagon? Hexagon? Septagon? Octagon? Calculate the angles involved in each of these. What is the sum of the angles for each of the different stars?
Now try drawing a triangle on a sphere (a balloon or Christmas ball will work well). Measure the angles of this triangle. What do you notice about their sum? What might this mean if you were to draw one of the stars on a sphere? Try it and see if your predictions hold.

For the younger set:
The Twelve Days of Christmas song lends itself well to learning ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), and at the end you can add up all the gifts the "true love" gave. Can you find a shortcut for adding successive numbers?

An Advent Calendar as well as a regular calendar can reinforce counting up and counting down skills.

Science
A few chemistry concoctions lend themselves well to Christmas.

Crystal window paint: This easy-clean recipe uses epsom salts to make a crystal pattern on any glass surface.
Crystals:
  Use this salt solution recipe to paint crystal patterns for cards and gift tags.
  Make a classic borax crystal ornament (remember when you did this as a kid?)
Snow:
  Use one of these recipes to make either shaving-cream or soap-based indoor "snow" dough.
  Paint the snow with spray bottles.
Don't forget to take a little time out for a nature walk and some star gazing too!

Engineering
Design your own Rube Goldberg machine to deliver a gift to a loved one, or make it a little simpler and set up your electric or wooden train around the tree to do the same thing.
Make and use some squishy circuits (playdough recipes that conduct and resist currents) to make a light-up Christmas tree, Rudolph, etc.

Technology
Design an electronic gift card, video greeting or holiday game using one or more of the following:
Scratch drag-and-drop computer programming tool from MIT
Windows paint
Picasa (try making a mosaic creation too!)
Photoshop
MS Movie Maker
Muvee
Or any other photo, drawing, graphics, video or word processing programs you like.
Or try Make-a Flake for some addictive mess-free snowflake making.

Remember, many more math & science activities can be found on the Lemonade website.